India renew pursuit of history, SAfrica hope rally continues

Port Elizabeth, Feb 12 (PTI) Knocked back in the previous
match, India will look to crush a South African revival before
it becomes a threat to their pursuit of a maiden ODI series
triumph here when the two sides clash in the fifth one-dayer,
tomorrow.

The Men in Blue still have a two-match cushion in the
six-ODI series. They lead 3-1 after winning the first in
Durban by six wickets, the second in Centurion by nine wickets
and the third in Cape Town by 124 runs.

The Proteas bounced back by winning the rain-affected and
lightning-struck Pink ODI in Johannesburg by five wickets.

India's wrist-spinners versus South Africa's batting
line-up is still the key contest going ahead in this series.
At Johannesburg, the dual rain intervention affected India's
momentum with both the bat and ball.

More importantly, it reduced the target sufficiently
that, despite AB de Villiers' relative early dismissal, the
home batsmen didn't have much trouble getting past.

The T20-mode of that second innings, coupled with the
best batting surface of the series, allowed David Miller and
Heinrich Klaasen to attack the wrist spinners and take the
game away.

Of course, the dropped catch and bowling Miller off a no
ball didn't help India's cause either. Yet, a rain-truncated
innings is hardly enough evidence that South Africa have
learnt how to contend with the wrist spin of Yuzvendra Chahal
and Kuldeep Yadav.

Additionally, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah were
not used to great effect as Virat Kohli chose to rely on the
spinners, even when they were unable to respond to the
Proteas' concentrated attack.

In this light, India's team selection will come into
focus in Port Elizabeth. There are still question-marks about
the fitness of Kedar Jadhav, who suffered a hamstring injury
in Cape Town and missed the previous game.

Albeit a part-timer, in his absence, India lose a
reliable bowling alternative particularly if Hardik Pandya
takes some stick and cannot complete his quota of overs.

Jadhav is adept at bowling slow spin, and mixing it up
well with Chahal and Yadav. India do not have many fall-back
options in Jadhav's absence -- Rohit Sharma last bowled an ODI
over at Perth in January 2016.

Shreyas Iyer is known to practice leg break and had
bowled an over against Sri Lanka in his debut series.

Neither of them provides a reliable option like Jadhav
does. Kohli himself is the other contender, but he bowls
seam-up.

In summation, Jadhav's bowling is being missed more than
his batting ability despite a troublesome middle-order and it
indicates India's team balance is still not optimal.

Ajinkya Rahane has scored 11 and 8 since making a
comeback 79 at no.4. Pandya's forgettable tour with the bat
(since the first Test in early January) continues, with scores
of 14 and 9 in his last two outings.

MS Dhoni's 42 not out (off 43 balls) was the only saving
grace for this shaky middle-order as India struggled to finish
well at Johannesburg.

The series' score-line has conveniently hid the fact that
India have a top-heavy batting order, despite the poor form of
Rohit Sharma, who has scored 40 runs in the first four ODIs
and boasts a gradually sinking ODI average of 11.45 in 12
matches on South African soil.

Kohli (393 runs) and Shikhar Dhawan (271 runs) have
scored nearly thrice the number of runs put together by the
remaining batsmen (239) and it ought to be a cause of major
worry for the Indian think-tank.

This fact will not go overlooked and South Africa will be
keen to exploit the Indian line-up's frailty and dismiss Kohli
and Dhawan cheaply to gain an early advantage.

It remains to be seen what bowling combination the hosts
will go in with. On a hard and bouncy Wanderers' wicket, they
had dropped a full-time spinner altogether, relying solely on
JP Duminy to do that job.

St. George's Park though has a history of aiding spinners
and in the last two ODIs played here, the Proteas' spinners
have been in prominence. In January 2017, Imran Tahir took 3-
26 against Sri Lanka.

In October 2016, Tabraiz Shamsi picked up 3-36 against
Australia while South Africa also picked a second spinner in
Aaron Phangiso who took 2-17.

South Africa have lost 11 out of 32 matches played at
this ground. Six of those losses have come in the last decade
as Port Elizabeth hosts at least one ODI every home summer.

India's record here is nothing to write about either.
They have lost all 5 ODIs played here since 1992.

Four of those defeats came against South Africa, while
the Men in Blue even managed to lose to Kenya here during the
one-day triangular as part of their 2001-02 tour.

In fact, in five previous ODI outings in Port Elizabeth,
India have never scored 200 runs here as 176 against South
Africa in October 2001 is their highest total yet.

Once again on this trip, India will have to fight dubious
past performances and erase a lop-sided record, only this time
in a bid to carve out a fresh piece of history.